While most of the attention surrounding the quarterly financial reports of AT&T and Verizon naturally revolve around the iPhone, mobile broadband and Android devices the companies are increasingly talking up their enterprise capabilities.
The business-to-business talk is long overdue and indicate that telecom executives are upbeat about corporate spending. Verizon talks business service and cloud computing via its acquisition of Terremark. AT&T has a more business services spin to its wireline business. In between, iPhone 4S net subscriber additions, there’s a healthy outlook for enterprise spending.
This enterprise optimism isn’t exactly showing up in the financial figures for these two telecom giants. Why? The enterprise services businesses are in flux. Voice and traditional corporate services are declining at a rapid clip. On the flip side, strategic, cloud and VPN services are growing. At some point, the fast growing businesses will overcome those in decline.
Also: AT&T’s Q4: 7.6 million iPhones activated | CNET: AT&T CEO doesn’t hold back in criticism of FCC | Verizon rides iPhone 4S, LTE in Q4 at expense of profit margins | Verizon nabs CloudSwitch to pursue global cloud strategy | Verizon steps up its cloud game, buys Terremark for $1.4 billion
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and CFO John Stephens highlighted the enterprise unit on Thursday during the company’s fourth quarter conference call. Sure, Stephenson ripped the FCC, but in between his rant was a lot of chatter about advanced IP services.
Source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/at-t-verizon-prepped-to-step-up-enterprise-games/68023
